


The Problem With Perfection

by ezraisangry



Series: What About Your Parents? [5]
Category: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Depression, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Pressure, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:48:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28600200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ezraisangry/pseuds/ezraisangry
Summary: Brian Johnson is the perfect son, but his parents demand more. Maybe if he had set the bar lower...Part 5 of 5 in the "What About Your Parents?" series
Series: What About Your Parents? [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073090
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	The Problem With Perfection

**Author's Note:**

> see tags for CWs . references to suicidal thoughts are present , no graphic descriptions though .

Brian Johnson was proud of himself. He aced his quiz, did well on his unit test, and made good progress on his project. He even was feeling more confident about his shop assignments, having gotten extra help from his teacher. He could move his B up to an A soon, no doubt. It would be okay.

His mother had other feelings on the matter.

"How about you tell me what's going on in shop?"

Brian looked at her nervously. He had just walked in the door, and her she was, hand on her hip and a look of irritation on her face.

"Nothing's going on" he started "I... I actually think I did pretty well today, and - "

"Your teacher called. He said you currently have a B"

"I - yeah, but..."

"But? That's got to be your easiest class! Are you blowing off assignments or something?!"

"No!"

What Brian didn't know was that the call was meant to be positive. His teacher was explaining he was proud of Brian's progress, but to his mother, that implied he had been doing poorly in the past. 

"This is going to lower your GPA, Brian, I hope you know that"

"Yeah, I..." he trailed off, feeling his heart sink "My teacher said he could give me some extra credit work, and there's still two months left in the semester" 

"You're not going out until you have an A, understood?"

He nodded, but wanted to scoff. It wasn't like he had any friends to hang out with. 

"Good. I suggest you work on your homework. Get in some extra studying too, while you're at it" she instructed, and Brian fled to his room. 

He began working on his homework as told, but couldn't find the motivation to do anything beyond that. It was pointless to him. No matter what he did, he'd always be demanded something more. The cycle was endless. 

Brian tapped his pencil against his chin absent-minded, contemplating what would happen if he just stopped trying. He'd be happier, he wouldn't be worrying about a percentage of a difference in his grades, he wouldn't care about study logs or worksheets or any of this meaningless stuff. Hell, maybe he'd even have friends. Brian couldn't help but wish that he didn't try so hard in his earlier years. If he was average, maybe he'd get praise for being so smart. But instead, being smart was the mere expectation. 

It was true, he liked school, but he didn't like the pressure or the feeling of never being enough.

He was never enough. Sometimes, death seemed easier than this unachievable, unclear goal he had. Who would miss him anyways? Maybe his little sister... who else? _Exactly. ___

__Losing himself in thought, he drifted off. All hell would break lose if his mother found him sleeping instead of memorizing a textbook, but Brian couldn't get himself to care. She'd always be angry and demanding, and he'd always be vulnerable to feed into her high standards._ _

__If only perfection was achievable._ _


End file.
